Great news from Brandon University! Check out this new initiative with great significance for ICRPS and all the partner institutions.
by Bill Reimer 18/10/2014
The Rural Policy Learning Commons (RPLC) was officially launched on Wednesday (August 27th). The Canadian Secretary of State for Science and Technology highlighted our project as he announced the funding of 70 projects selected by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The RPLC is a seven-year Partnership project linking (at this point) 30 institutional and 60 individual participants in an international network focusing on comparative policy analysis. Much of the inspiration and support for this project comes from the ICRPS network and many of the participants are ICRPS faculty and students. The ICRPS summer school will also be partially funded by the project.
RPLC funding will be used to conduct a number of “state of the arts” reviews with 
proposals for future research and policy. At the moment four themes are being addressed: Human Capital and Migration, Natural Resource Development, Governance, and Infrastructure and Services. These themes will change over the life of the project as they become refined and new issues emerge.
The RPLC will also support seven types of activities to facilitate collaboration, research, and education. These include Research and Exchanges, Institutes (including the ICRPS summer schools), Policy Fora, Distance Learning activities, Publications (academic and non-academic), a Digital Information Hub, and Social Media.
There are many opportunities for ICRPS faculty, students, and alumni that are created by this project. These include travel and subsistence for conferences, workshops, exchanges, planning, theses, or any other collaboration that facilitates comparative policy analysis. RPLC funds can also go to non-Canadians, so long as they contribute to Canadian knowledge. We will also be on the lookout for students who can help us with the many activities of the project like preparing research materials, maintaining communication, and managing its many elements.
Information about the project can be found via its website at http://rplc-capr.ca. Check it out and if you find something of interest be sure to contact us with your questions and suggestions. We are organized to take advantage of opportunities that emerge – and one of those might be you!